N Chandrababu Naidu and his delegation, including his son and information and technology minister, Nara Lokesh, were stuck at the Abu Dhabi airport, on their return from World Economic Forum at Davos, as their flight got delayed due to bad weather.

Andhra chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu could not attend the Republic Day celebrations held in Vijayawada on Friday as he was stuck at Abu Dhabi on his return from the World Economic Forum at Davos.

Although there was no official statement from the government, inquiries revealed that Naidu and his delegation, including his son and information and technology minister, Nara Lokesh, were stuck at the Abu Dhabi airport as their flight got delayed due to bad weather.

“He was supposed to land at Gannavaram airport on the outskirts of Vijayawada by 7 am so that he could catch up with the Republic Day celebrations on time. However, his flight got delayed at Abu Dhabi airport due to a thick cover of fog. He would be reaching Vijayawada by 4 pm, almost nine hours behind the schedule,” an official said.

Though it is the Governor who hoists the national flag and addresses the gathering, besides inspecting the ceremonial parade, the presence of the chief minister at the official celebrations is customary as per the protocol. It is not known whether there were any such instances in the past of chief ministers skipping the Republic Day.

In fact, Governor ESL Narasimhan, of both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, has been hoisting the Tricolour and attending the Republic Day celebrations first in Andhra Pradesh and then in Telangana for the last three years.

This year, the AP government requested the Governor to attend the celebrations first in Hyderabad and then come to Vijayawada because the chief minister would be landing only on Friday morning.

As a result, Narasimhan first attended the Republic Day parade in Hyderabad at 8am and then flew down to Vijayawada to hoist the flag at 11.28am at the Indira Gandhi Municipal Stadium and inspected the parade.

In the absence of the chief minister, chief secretary Dinesh Kumar received the Governor as per the protocol. Naidu’s wife Bhuvaneshwari hoisted the national flag at the chief minister’s residence and attended the R-Day celebrations.